''Lycorhinus'' is a genus of

heterodontosaurid Heterodontosauridae is a family of ornithischian dinosaurs that were likely among the most basal (primitive) members of the group. Their phylogenetic placement is uncertain but they are most commonly found to be primitive, outside of the group ...

ornithischia Ornithischia () is an extinct order of mainly herbivorous dinosaurs characterized by a pelvic structure superficially similar to that of birds. The name ''Ornithischia'', or "bird-hipped", reflects this similarity and is derived from the Greek s ...

n dinosaur from the Early Jurassic (

Hettangian The Hettangian is the earliest age and lowest stage of the Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (My ...

to Sinemurian ages) strata of the Elliot Formation located in the Cape Province, South Africa.

Description

''Lycorhinus'', including the remains described by Gow in 1975 as ''Lanasaurus'', is a small ( in length) herbivorous dinosaur despite the long

canine Canine may refer to: Zoology and anatomy * a dog-like Canid animal in the subfamily Caninae ** '' Canis'', a genus including dogs, wolves, coyotes, and jackals ** Dog, the domestic dog * Canine tooth, in mammalian oral anatomy People with the ...

s it sported in its jaws.

History of discovery

The fossil material consists of

dentaries In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...

and maxillae, hence the characters mentioned by the name ''Lycorhinus angustidens'' that

Sidney H. Haughton Sidney Henry Haughton FRS (7 May 1888 – 24 May 1982) was an English-born South African paleontologist and geologist best known for his description of the sauropodomorph dinosaur '' Melanorosaurus'' in 1924, and his work on the geology of ...

attributed to the remains in 1924, where the generic name means " wolf snout", as it was at first misidentified as a

cynodont The cynodonts () (clade Cynodontia) are a clade of eutheriodont therapsids that first appeared in the Late Permian (approximately 260 mya), and extensively diversified after the Permian–Triassic extinction event. Cynodonts had a wide variety ...

, and the specific descriptor means "constricted tooth". The holotype, SAM 3606, consists of a mandible found by Dr M. Ricono. Three other species of ''Lycorhinus'' have been named. ''Lycorhinus parvidens'' was created by Robert Broom and ''Lycorhinus tucki'' by Richard Anthony Thulborn in 1970 renaming '' Heterodontosaurus tucki'', but these have failed to find recognition. ''Lycorhinus consors'', named by Thulborn in 1974, was renamed '' Abrictosaurus'' by

James Hopson James Allen Hopson (born 1935) is an American paleontologist and professor (now retired) at the University of Chicago. His work has focused on the evolution of the synapsids (a group of amniotes that includes the mammals), and has been focused ...

in 1975.

''Lanasaurus''

The

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

and only species of ''Lanasaurus'' is ''L. scalpridens'', described by

Christopher Gow Christopher is the English version of a Europe-wide name derived from the Greek name Χριστόφορος (''Christophoros'' or '' Christoforos''). The constituent parts are Χριστός (''Christós''), "Christ" or "Anointed", and φέρει ...

in 1975 from the same horizon as ''Lycorhinus''. The generic name is derived from Latin ''lana'', "wool" and Greek ''saurus'', "lizard", and honours Professor

Alfred Walter Crompton Alfred Walter "Fuzz" Crompton (born 21 February 1927 in Durban) is a South African paleontologist and zoologist. Crompton studied at the University of Stellenbosch and obtained a bachelor's degree in 1947 and a masters in 1949, in zoology. He c ...

, nicknamed "Fuzz" because of his woolly hair. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

is derived from Latin ''scalprum'', "chisel", and ''dens'', "tooth". It is based on a partial upper jaw bone, the maxilla, holotype BP/1/4244, found in the Upper Elliot Formation of Free State. The teeth show a typical replacement pattern in which during each replacement cycle every third tooth is renewed. Gow himself in 1990 concluded that the holotype of ''Lanasaurus'' was actually a specimen of ''Lycorhinus angustidens''. This has been commonly accepted since.Norman, D.B., Sues, H.D., Witmer, L.M. and Coria, R.A.. (2004). "Basal Ornithopoda". In D. B. Weishampel, H. Osmólska, and P. Dodson (eds.), ''The Dinosauria'' (2nd edition). University of California Press, Berkeley 393-412

Classification

''L. angustidens'' is thought to be allied to ''Heterodontosaurus''. Only in 1962

recognised it was an ornithischian dinosaur. Thulborn in 1971 created a separate LycorhinidaeR.A. Thulborn, 1971, "Origins and evolution of ornithischian dinosaurs", ''Nature'' 234(5324): 75-78 but this group was in 1972 equated with Heterodontosauridae by Peter Galton.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2018521 Heterodontosaurids Hettangian life Pliensbachian life Sinemurian life Early Jurassic dinosaurs of Africa Jurassic South Africa Fossils of South Africa Fossil taxa described in 1924 Taxa named by Sidney H. Haughton Ornithischian genera